AM Announcements - May 21

AM Announcements
May 21, 2010

1. Today is Day 166.

2. It is the mission of Speas Elementary School to provide its students with the tools necessary to successfully meet the challenges they will face in a diverse world.

3. Calendar items for this week:

Friday: May 21
EOG - Make-up testing

3. Upcoming Calendar Items:
a. 05/25 - Web Page migration session to School Wires
b. 05/26 - Web Page migration session to School Wires
c. 05/28 - Dollar Dress Down Day
d. 05/28 - Box Tops for Education due
e. 05/31 - Memorial Day - No School
f. 06/01-06/04 - EOG Remediation
g. 06/04 - Class Picnics
h. 06/08 - Fifth Grade Celebration; Honor Roll Assembly; Fifth Grade Social

4. All we test today are make-ups. Yippie! We'll have our results this weekend and be ready to start remediation on Monday.

5.  The SIT team and K-1 teachers placed the decision to purchase Imagine It for K-1 in my hands yesterday. The discussion was lengthy and many opinions were shared. This was prompted by the fact that we were the only Title-1 school (tiered or non-tiered) that determined not to participate. Sit members can provide you with the full text of the information I presented to them and what precipitated my bringing it back up when SIT had determined not purchased. As a result of their decision and the feelings expressed by K-1 teachers, I have placed the purchase of Imagine It in our prioritized Title-1 plan and will be submitting a purchase order today.

6. Don't forget to turn in your pledge card for the UNCF drive. The current total is $740.00. Remember that the drive ends today.

7. The School Board met last night to discuss budget concerns. This meeting was an attempt to deal with the gulf that exists between the School Board and the County Commissioners regarding school funding. The School Board requested an increase of $600,000 over last year. The County Commissioners countered with a reduction of $4,000,000 from last year's allocation. At this time, according to Fitch Rating Service, the County has approximately $129,000,000 in reserve in fund balance. The commissioners do not seem to be inclined to touch this "rainy day" fund. The following additional cuts discussed last night amounted to approximately $4 million. These were the elimination of elementary foreign language; elimination of all local assistant positions; reduction in theme budgets from $35,000 to $20,000 for all elementary schools; elimination of funding for the WS Symphony and related travel expenses; charging students a fee to play inter-scholastic sports; and reducing the supplement paid to sponsors and coaches since all these items are funded with local money from county taxes. Together these would save approximately $4 million. The commissioners will reconsider the board's request at a meeting on Monday night at 6:00 PM.

8. The address of the blog for staff comment on the information presented to SIT last Tuesday is:

http://2010-11organizationstructureb.blogspot.com/2010/05/2010-2011-structure-organization-and.html

9. This has been a long stressful week. Try to get out of here quickly this afternoon.

10. We will most likely receive testing results tomorrow if our data is clean. At the latest it will be Monday morning at 7:30. Once the information is know we will divide the students into groups and begin remediation. We need everyone to be flexible next week. Student performance for AYP and for Gateways is dependent on the first two administrations so those who will go through the remediation process can still help themselves and the school. Results from the first administration are the only scores used to calculate growth by the state.
 
11. I am a Marxist--of the Groucho tendency.
Anonymous, French slogan

A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.
W. C. Fields (1880 - 1946)

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884 - 1980)